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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25038280">Like Grains of Sand</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/quoth_the_ravyn/pseuds/Ravyn'>Ravyn (quoth_the_ravyn)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>100 situations [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rurouni Kenshin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A Tiny Bit of Fantasy, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Mermaid!Kaoru, Prince!Kenshin, Some Fluff, Some angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:14:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,527</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25038280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/quoth_the_ravyn/pseuds/Ravyn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaoru bargained for human legs to save her brother. What she found might make that price worth it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Himura Kenshin/Kamiya Kaoru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>100 situations [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813336</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Like Grains of Sand</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I hope you are all doing well and are staying safe in this crazy year of 2020.</p>
<p>The drabble prompt for this was to write something based off of the Little Mermaid. This was as close as I could get.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The tunnel was dark and a little dank and the scuttle of rats was the only real sound that was carrying through the darkness. Tilting his head just enough to glance behind him, Kenshin made sure that his 'partner' was still close enough to catch. The last few months had done much to cure her of the innate clumsiness but the habit had set. He found himself checking her steadiness, keeping a hand on the small of her back and leaning just close enough to stand hip-to-hip should she need the save throughout the day, even when they weren't skulking through an underground tunnel that had partially flooded.</p>
<p>Not that it was the only reason he chose to touch her anymore.</p>
<p>"You're sure this is the way?"</p>
<p>Sea-dark eyes met his and the long, pale fingers he had spent too long thinking about curled around the curious shell at her neck. Sometimes he caught the faintest of noises, almost a whisper or voice – there was magic there. Magic that pulsed like the heavy beat of the drum in his chest if he touched her skin for too long. Sea magic. Being on land for half a year hadn't stripped her completely of that innate wildness, but it had faded from all but her eyes and that shell.</p>
<p>Her nod was precise and was followed by the particular tucking of her brows that said she thought he was being ridiculous again. He was used to that look. Keeping his face perfectly straight until he was facing away from that annoyed, grumpy face he eyed the darkness of the tunnel and frowned himself. Considered what he knew about the lady next to him.</p>
<p>Nearly a year ago he had found her washed up on the beach, tangled in little more than seaweed and wrapped up in enough sea magic to make his teeth hurt. There were legends of such occurrences – sea maidens giving up their fins for legs; but finding one on the stretch of private beach in front of his family estate was a different matter entirely.</p>
<p>If only she hadn't somehow lost her ability to speak. He knew it wasn't something that inflicted all of her kind – in the Wide Straights sailors often bribed the sea-people with shiny baubles for information on currents and fishing. But his little sea-lady couldn't speak. By now it was clear that it wasn't a matter of 'wouldn't' as much as 'couldn't,' her absolute frustration at not being understood would have cured her much sooner had it been a simple matter of choosing.</p>
<p>A sharp jab between his shoulder blades and he grinned to himself and started to gingerly slide forward. "Yes Ma'am. We're moving."</p>
<p>And he was. Careful to keep his weight centered on the balls of his feet, he moved carefully along the slick surface. She silent behind him – the water didn't even splash as she moved. Even without the sea-wildness, there was something about her that called to the waters around him like an undine.</p>
<p>But whatever had brought her to land, he knew it was important. Had seen the lines of exhaustion and despair around her eyes and mouth – had watched her stubbornly keep her human legs even as the sea was leached from her a little each day. There weren't many people who could talk him into slinking through these underground tunnels with little more than a finger pointed at an entrance and a stubborn, stubborn expression firmly planted on such an expressive little face.</p>
<p>If they were rescuing her husband, he was going to be very unhappy.</p>
<hr/>
<p>This entire situation felt wrong and she had no idea how to tell him. She would never have brought him with her if she didn't know she needed him – the undine's spell hadn't been perfect. Occasionally, her body forgot that it had legs and she still struggled with the dexterity of moving in air instead of water. Here there were no visible currents to aid her, just her own balance and muscle. No underwater creatures to befriend into blinding the enemy, just this one human man who held more of an affinity to fire than anything resembling water.</p>
<p>If she hadn't witnessed his ability with a blade – she still didn't understand the practicality of using one long blade vs. a trident, but questions were impossible to ask – she would have been a lot more worried than she already was. When she had finally managed to ride the waves on a strange bit of wood to the land, she had hardly expected to be located so quickly by a human. Much less this one with hair like fire and a touch that branded, only once the thickness of the sea magic had worn off had he been able to touch her without causing acute pain. He was too hot, his world was too bright and she had spent those first few days in a complete daze.</p>
<p>Pressing her lips together, she attempted to get a better read on that faint, faint flicker of sea magic that was calling her. Yahiko had been missing for too long, it had taken her nearly half a year to find a powerful enough undine to give her legs. But everything had a price. Hers was the ability to talk; a lack of communication that had yet to stop annoying her. How much quicker would they have found Yahiko otherwise? If only she had picked up writing faster, had been able to grasp their written language and the awkward way they held made words. Her people had no such use for writing and while she dutifully practiced, it was hard.</p>
<p>She wished she could explain this. There was no reason for her to be compelled to tell Kenshin anything but she found herself longing to just talk… to tell him about her brother. How she knew he was alive, how she could feel him connected to that bit of sea magic holding her voice hostage. To tell him the simple joys of riding a current or hunting dinner with a dolphin pod. How much it hurt her to be out of the ocean every day, how each dawn narrowed her window of time until the spell faded completely. How each day brought her a choice, to return to the ocean and to free her voice and stay forever or to stay bound to land.</p>
<p>Ask why his touch, the painful heat of it, drew her. How for those moments his hand was on her back or curled around her wrist, how when his body was hip to hip with hers he somehow managed to ease the sea-longing so it no longer swallowed her whole.</p>
<p>Kenshin stopped in front of her, the hard line of his back going taunt at the sight of something in front of her. She was so close to Yahiko that she could feel it and she shifted so that she could see around his shoulder. Her heart hammered in her throat as she finally realized what she was seeing. Kaoru pressed the palm of her hand against the heat of Kenshin's back and swallowed. Grindylows. But they were fresh-water creatures that fed off human children – but these creatures were drenched in sea magic. If in that knot of feeding creatures hid her brother…</p>
<p>Anger flared hot in her chest. Someone was feeding sea-people children to Grindylows? By why now, so much later? She set her jaw. Someone was hiding something with this… feeding. Her fingers dug into Kenshin's back when they shifted, turning towards them and she was able to get a good look at what they had hidden.</p>
<p>A sensation like a cavern opened in her chest as she finally set eyes on the brother she had dared dry land to hunt for. His sea-magic was gone. He was still, eyes closed and skin pale like something dead and for a moment her heart stuttered in her chest. Someone or something had captured him and then stripped him of his magic. No undine spell could fix this.</p>
<p>Her fingers feel away from the heat of Kenshin. He took that moment to move forward, the long knife in his hand sparking with the near-unbearable heat of him. As always, this close to the heat and her eyes watered in an immediate reaction.</p>
<p>The full force of his magic hit the little knot like a battering ram. They scattered around him, giving him a chance to crouch over the small body of her brother. Swallowing, she watched as they came back at him hardly deterred by the heat that rolled off him in ways. They would swallow him whole… unless she gave them something else.</p>
<p>Curling her fingers around the seashell at her neck, she wretched downward until the chain snapped. Pain burned along the back of her neck and she grimaced before she slid forward another half-step. It looked like her choice had been made for her.</p>
<p>
  <em>Yahiko wouldn't be going home…</em>
</p>
<p>With all the force she could muster she flung the glowing ball of sea magic at Kenshin's feet.</p>
<p>
  <em>… and neither would she.</em>
</p>
<p>The eruption was salt and the wild tossing of the ocean. It washed through the horrible tunnel like the freshness after a storm and for a moment, it called for her and tugged at her. But there was no ocean to feed it and there was no joy to sustain it. The Grindylows scattered – the salt of the ocean too harsh against the burns inflicted by Kenshin's heat. Then it faded, the rush of magic used up. A moment before it had gone completely, there was a stroke, a brush of power that felt like a goodbye against the base of her throat.</p>
<p>With that last connection to the ocean gone she found herself gasping, struggling to draw in the air into lungs that couldn't precisely remember how to work without the sea-magic to hold the spell. It was like drowning on air. She must have made a noise; hands going to her chest as she suddenly forgot how to breathe. Because then Kenshin was there, hands curling around her jaw and his mouth was on hers, breathing for her; forcing her lungs to work in and out, reminding them how air worked on land. The heat of him burned through the coldness in her veins as she pulled away and gasped for air. When the world stopped moving he was gripping her shoulders tightly, violet eyes sparked with gold.</p>
<p>"Are you alright?"</p>
<p>Habit had her nodding instead of trying to speak and he closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them there was a determination in his gaze and he leaned back in and kissed her again. This time instead of the lingering pain of fire against water, the heat of him swept through her and her head swam. The slide of his tongue against hers was better and she pressed closer, starving for him, for this after having the ocean ripped from her.</p>
<p>Suddenly she pulled back and he paused, watching her carefully. Realizing that he must have thought she had rejected him she shook her head and swallowed. Then, fingers curled in his shirt she tried to speak. Her voice was rough and broken, hoarse from lack of use but it worked.</p>
<p>"Kenshin. My brother."</p>
<p>Surprise flared in his eyes but after he was certain she was steadied; he had turned and moved to pick up the still, small body. Kaoru curled her fingers into fists as she forced herself not to demand to hold him as they struggled back through the tunnels. Instead, she managed somehow to wait until they were in the too-bright sunshine. Then she cradled his face between her shaking palms and tried not to weep.</p>
<p>He looked sun bleached, hair that had once been as black as her own was now earth-brown; and when she checked his eyes they no longer held the darkness of the ocean. Tears clogged her throat as warm, sun kissed fingers curled around hers.</p>
<p>"Your eyes are still blue." Her gaze snapped to his and he reached out and touched the corner of her eye. "They are still bluer than any human I know."</p>
<p>She swallowed and this time her voice was better. "I lost my magic by choice."</p>
<p>He tilted his head and for the first time, she actually felt the heat of his magic brush along her skin. She suddenly realized how careful he had been with her now that he no longer risked hurting her with magic or touch. Saw the understanding growing in his eyes as he realized what her words meant. Curling her fingers around his she watched the tightness in his jaw ease.</p>
<p>"You still feel more to me," Kenshin said slowly. "Still not-quite-human."</p>
<p>Kaoru felt her bottom lip tremble. "But the sea is gone."</p>
<p>His hand dropped to settle at the base of her throat, his expression gentle. "You can speak."</p>
<p>For a moment she considered pulling away, insisting that they take Yahiko somewhere safe. But they were in the sunshine and she could hear the bustle of the crowds around the corner. Yahiko was breathing and she couldn't feel any abnormalities other than the complete lack of magic. She went still as she realized that she could feel the difference between Kenshin and her brother, could sense the magic. Maybe she hadn't lost everything after all.</p>
<p>And after all this time, Kenshin deserved an explanation.</p>
<p>"Yahiko had been taken, we knew by humans but we couldn't tell how. I found an undine who would give me legs, but it cost me my voice." She closed her eyes. "I had until the new year to find a way for both of us to return to the ocean before even undine-magic would have been unable to return us to the way we were."</p>
<p>"Is that why you gave your magic up?" He asked slowly. "The New Year is in two days."</p>
<p>Kaoru shook her head and finally met his gaze, not bothering to hide her grief. "Yahiko no longer carries any of the sea – someone stole it. I will not leave my brother here on land alone."</p>
<p>Instead of answering her immediately, he brought her hand to his mouth, kissing her palm before lacing her fingers with his. "You both will always have a home with me."</p>
<p>She licked dry lips. "My name is Kaoru."</p>
<p>Warm violet eyes caught and held hers; something hot sparking there that eased some of the edges of her grief for her loss. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she wondered not for the first time if losing him would also have been a sharp pain had she returned to the ocean.</p>
<p>"Let's take you both home," he said as he let her hand go and lifted Yahiko back into his arms. "Tomorrow, we will go over the details of what you know and start looking for whoever started this."</p>
<p>Slowly she stood and took the hand he offered her. She had lost her place in the sea, but maybe she would start building one here – with this strange man of fire.</p>
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